EU presses Obama to expand US fracking under TTIP while banning it in European countries

Under negotiations for a new trade deal between the United States and Europe, the release of a secret memo shows Americans are being pushed to increase oil and gas exploration through the process of fracking and other methods.

Obtained by the Huffington Post, the memo contains the energy
policies that EU negotiators are hoping to see implemented in a
finalized Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
Among the EU’s positioning is that “energy goods” – classified as
"coal, crude oil, oil products, natural gas, whether
liquefied or not, and electrical energy” – are determined to
“automatically” comply with the processes needed to authorize
export.

"Exports of energy goods to the other Party shall be deemed
automatically to comply with any conditions and tests foreseen in
the Parties’ respective legislation for the granting of export
licenses," the document states.

The draft also wants all parties involved to “recognize that
it is desirable to strengthen the important role that trade in
raw materials and energy plays in their relationship and to
enhance this role through sustained and gradual
liberalisation.”

With the majority of TTIP negotiations being held in secrecy,
it’s unclear to what extent the EU’s preferences have been met.
The document was reportedly first sent to American officials in
September.

If implemented, however, the terms would mark a significant shift
in US energy policy. Crude oil exports have been banned by the US
since 1975. According to a recent Wall Street Journal report,
Energy Secretary, Ernest Moniz, wants to consider relaxing the
ban, and officials believe the White House can issue exemptions
to some energy companies in order to allow them to export crude
oil.

As RT noted previously, the idea doesn’t currently
have Democratic support in Congress, but the statements could be
a signal that the US is considering methods to reduce European
dependency on Russian energy in the wake of the Ukraine conflict.

For environmentalists, the position staked out by the EU in the
memo has raised concern over the possibility that fracking –
already a controversial process – will be expanded across the US
alongside offshore drilling and natural gas exploration. Not only
would boosting American energy exploration hurt the environment,
they say, it would also slow down efforts to move the world
towards renewable energy.

"Encouraging trade in dirty fossil fuels would mean more
dangerous fracking here in the U.S. and would push more
climate-disrupting fuels into the European Union," Ilana
Solomon, director of the Responsible Trade Program at Sierra
Club, told Huffington Post. "The oil and gas industry is the
only winner in this situation."

Over the last year, fracking in particular has come under fire in
numerous states and on the national level, where the process is
being blamed for record levels of earthquakes in multiple states.
After highly pressurized water, sand, and other chemicals are
blasted into layers of rock in order to free oil and gas, the
wastewater is pumped into underground wells – many of which have
been built along fault lines and cause friction near them.

Notably, the EU’s energy preferences would see fracking rise in
the US while the practice comes under harsher scrutiny in Europe.
Already, France and Bulgaria have barred fracking, while other EU
countries such as Germany are considering similar bans.

The revelation for the EU’s energy preferences also comes as
opposition to the TTIP has grown over the last year. According to
Reuters, the potential trade deal could bring up to $100 billion
in economic activity and up to 1 million new jobs, but concerns
over the environment, even fewer tariffs, genetically modified
foods, and the general secrecy surrounding the negotiations has
brought criticism from both the left and the right.